16 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to deposit 

 in the British Museum the collection of Music hitherto 

 preserved in Buckingham Palace. It consists of about 1,000 

 manuscripts and 8,000 printed books. The main feature of the 

 collection is the set of eighty-one volumes in the autograph of 

 Handel, with forty-one more in the hands of his amanuenses. 

 These were presented to King George III. by John Christopher 

 Smith, Handel's principal amanuensis, to whom they had been 

 bequeathed by the author, and they form the basis of all 

 scientific study of Handel's music. Another volume contains 

 fourteen anthems and forty-six secular compositions in the 

 autograph of the greatest native English musician, Henry 

 Purcell. The collection (which remains the property of the 

 Crown) is of the greatest interest to musicians, to whom it will 

 now, by the King's wish, become accessible on the same terms 

 as the other collections of the Museum. It is proposed to 

 house it eventually in a special room in the King Edward 

 Galleries, now in process of construction. 



By the will of the late Mr. Alfred Huth, the Department of 

 Printed Books received the most valuable gift that has come 

 to it since the bequest of the Grenville Library in 1847. 

 Mr. Huth directed that, in the event of his library being 

 sold, the Trustees of the British Museum should be allowed to 

 select, before the sale, fifty volumes at their free choice. This 

 admirable form of bequest, which secured for the Museum the 

 volumes which it most needed, while leaving the bulk of the 

 great library intact, gave the Museum thirty-seven printed 

 books of exceptional importance and rarity and thirteen fine 

 illuminated manuscripts. The details of the volumes thus 

 acquired are set out in the reports of the Keepers of the 

 Departments concerned. In addition, at the sale of the first 

 portion of the Huth Library, the Museum was able to acquire 

 twenty-eight printed books which were much needed for the 

 collection. In accordance with the terms of Mr. Huth's will, a 

 special catalogue, fully illustrated, has been prepared of the 

 fifty volumes constituting his bequest. 



Besides the thirteen manuscripts received under the Huth 

 Bequest (one of which, since its interest consists in its inserted 

 woodcuts, has been transferred to the Department of Prints 

 and Drawings), the Department of Manuscripts received a 

 valuable collection of historical papers in the correspondence of 

 the Earls of Liverpool, presented by the Hon. H. B. Portman. 

 This is naturally of considerable political and historical im- 

 portance for the reigns of George III. and George IV. The 

 Department is also indebted to the generosity of private donors 

 for some interesting literary MSS. Mr. Thomas Hardy has pre- 

 sented the autograph MSS. of his epic drama, " The Dynasts" 

 (which finds a fitting home among so many records of the 

 national history), and of one of the best of his novels, " Tess of 

 the Durbervilles." Mrs. W. E. H. Lecky has presented the 

 autograph MS. of her late husband's work, " The History of 

 European Morals " ; and a leaf of " The Pickwick Papers," in 



